civil society russia's prime minister is launching his push for a third term as president. and america's mainstream media is accused of hyping up the prospect of war between iran and the west it's a sensitive time with the military standoff in the persian gulf and mounting sanctions over time bronson nuclear program. well the u.s. has its fingers in many pies around the world but it's trouble on the home front that the republican presidential candidates are using to try and do voters american foreign policy scholar john fur explains now how there's actually very little to choose between them. thank you for joining us on r.t. thank you for having me on the show. let's start with the g.o.p. results in iowa do you think they indicate an ideological divide among the g.o.p. well i think in general the g.o.p.

is has a consensus certainly a consensus on economic matters they don't want government interference in the market and this is a consensus that even includes ron paul if you look a little closer at some foreign policy issues there's a little bit of a difference ron paul obviously being the outlier wants to scale back u.s. role in the world the rest of them one way or another take more hawkish positions than the current obama administration so there's a general consensus there too so i don't think there's a lot of differences between the republican candidates although i mean santorum comes from a completely different school than mitt romney and ron paul. they certainly do they're appealing to some of the same voters and i think in a general election we of course would see the republican candidate move toward the center in order to get as much of the center and independent votes as possible but right now during the primaries they're pretty much going to be clustered around the

same kind of positions and they're running against the obama administration and there isn't a lot of difference between them and we've seen their positions which hurt their position in some countries like iran right now way which is the hot spot what role do you think they foreign policy play in their campaign right now to be honest foreign policy doesn't play much of a role in part because the obama administration has taken foreign policy off the table certainly national security issues it's very difficult to run to the right of barack obama foreign policy after what he's done the killing of osama bin laden. the expansion of drone war in pakistan. is also difficult to run on the left around him because of course he's ending the war in iraq so he's essential don't criticize him they still criticize him but it doesn't really get them a lot of leverage or a lot of interest from the media you know the red meat issues for the republicans

are going to be the economy and some cultural issues as well foreign policy you know i mean as herman cain said i don't know where back to back a back to stand as i mean that unfortunately is a popular position in the electorate here in the united states a kind of will for all willful ignorance of what's going on in the world and yet they might that might harm their position on local issues i mean when they're talking more when they're talking iran they seem to be connecting the foreign policy when. here at home well they they sometimes do and you know they're always trying to make a point connected to the economy whether it has to do with reducing military spending or increase in military spending ultimately it's got to come back to what we call pocketbook issues i mean what americans have in the last couple of elections voted on that is jobs you know the employment issue you know whether they

have houses you know the foreclosure more dangerous. general kind of feeling about the u.s. economy in general our g.d.p. our trade balance and so forth those are going to be the issues at the end of the day for the republicans i mean of course they have to appear presidential they have to talk about foreign policy but they know alternately that's mostly for show i mean when they really want to appeal to voters they really have to grab the ball once and they kind of mean it's not going to get any better well that's hard to say i mean even economists have difficulty predicting what's happening with the economy . we've seen a slight improvement with the unemployment rate i think for the president the most important thing is perception if americans feel that the economy is getting better they tend to overlook the numbers. but they don't want it to look better now as long as obama still president. the republicans yeah oh absolutely. the publicans

have been doom and gloom i mean this has been their bread and butter during the campaign if they can make it seem as though the world is getting increasingly worse they themselves will be superman who comes in to save the situation. relations with countries. countries like north korea countries like china russia seem to be managed differently under. different presidents how do you think that's going to change now. for the remainder of their i mean yes not a year well president obama made a big point at the apec meeting and why to say you know we're we're making the pacific pivot you know moving away from the middle east and we're going to focus more on asia. in some sense be wishful thinking because of course the united states has a certain limited range in terms of foreign policy opportunities it basically is still in afghanistan still has to deal with iran and pakistan still do dealing with the

aftermath of iraq still dealing with the arab spring in the aftermath there it's very difficult for the united states to make a pivot like this so it's more of an aspirational pivot it's what the obama administration would like to do and so it's made a couple of gestures by putting some more marines in australia by saying that we're going to kind of focus more on china but whether will actually see some concrete changes it's going to be very difficult. you know what the obama administration has already done a modest opening to burma a very very modest opening to north. gloria the president doesn't have a lot of political capital that he doesn't want to waste it initiatives that might appear from republican critics to be appeasement so appeasing china appeasing north korea peace in burma he doesn't want to get into a situation in which if there's a best seller now especially in the lead up to the elections were either congress

or the republican candidates can say we told you we told you this guy likes to sit down with dictators we would have none of that if we were president does that mean that the u.s. is changing its strategy in that region in the i mean in the middle east and in strategy in general not just in middle east you know i think the obama administration is have a. pretty clear trajectory for the last three years it's tried to extricate the united states from the worst kind of legacies of the previous administration primarily in iraq but also looking ahead in afghanistan but at the same time dealing with what has been considered a key issue and that is counterterrorism and the perception that democrats are weak on national defense issues and so the president has been very careful to say hey you know we will go to war if necessary and we will use force when necessary so i think this balance will continue for the remainder of his term all of the

presidential candidates. make israel the centerpiece their foreign policy discussions do you think it's because it's really the most important foreign security issue or elections well it's primarily elections i mean if you look at the obama administration's position toward israel. even israel will say it's been the best relations in a long time. the obama administration opposed palestinian initiatives in the going after statehood continued military support. israel doff basically when netanyahu refused to do anything on the settlements issue again there's been some aspirational language what the united states would like to happen in solving the arab israeli disputes but generally speaking there has been no transformation of the united states remains firm of israel the republican candidates are thinking

well there are two constituencies we want to reach out to one are evangelicals evangelicals who have very strongly said that we stand with israel and the others jewish voters who if they can peel them away from obama would be a great in the two thousand and twelve election i mean could you elaborate a little bit more about that specially with the g.o.p. presidential candidates right now and it was specially after what you said that obama has done everything to what seems to be appeasing as well yeah the candidates the g.o.p. candidates are saying that he has not done enough that's right i mean it makes for good headlines i mean strangely it might seem because of course it seems like the republican candidates are trying to outdo themselves in saying that they're friends of israel even to the point of almost outsourcing foreign policy decisions to netanyahu with the debate between romney and gingrich who would you know call netanyahu to get approval prior to any kind of u.s. policy which in some sense is unheard of in u.s.

foreign policy circles again i think this is primarily because of who they were looking toward in iowa and the constituency in iowa there was a perception that maybe whoever kind of grabs hold of the evangelical vote will be able to determine you know the course of iowa and to a certain extent that was smart politics whether this will translate into a real election year issue when the republican candidate is chosen i doubt it i don't know i can't really see mitt romney using the israel issue too much advantage come the fall but certainly in the republican primaries it's useful polity. and now with the arab revolutions do you think that has anything to do or affect in any way that presidential candidates campaigns i would like it to you of course this is a major event on the world stage unfortunately the united states is rather poor especially with our elections and sometimes even the greatest transformations have

very little effect on politics here in this country of course there were some statements by michele bachmann of course to try to suggest that the president had made a mistake by aligning himself with arab spring protesters because that would assure in islamists and this of course was the greatest fear for michele bachmann and several other republican candidates that no effectively you know obama from from my speech teacher point if you can believe moral questions from a strategic point of view do quite a good job he didn't dive in he waited and then divorced himself from problematic u.s. alliances with mubarak for instance in egypt. said he would lead from behind in libya which seemed to be in hindsight a smart strategy as well so he's essentially protected his flank against the republicans this issue it's going to be hard for the reply mean the michele bachmann has to go kind of out on the live you know in with

a rather farfetched argument in order to try to attack the president on his positions on the arab spring so like it or not i think the president has taken arab spring off the table as well as an election year thing so i mean with the fact that they have gone into war and libya and that was a pretty sight criticized by john mccain it was indoor saying mitt romney that's right now mind you if the situation in libya deteriorates if the situation in egypt deteriorates if we have full scale civil war in syria that's another matter. but the situations as they stand now with elections in egypt with the situation relatively stable in. libya and the situation of course is not good in syria but the level of violence hasn't escalated to an all out civil war. status quo if that remains i don't think so no action your issue right thank you very much

. when an uncomfortable question leads to a grave accusation the world who is more is enough obviously. the president who isn't supposed to hide anything. or it's someone asking him why do you make a secret out that when the powers to be suppress the voice of those who think different. when you get experiencing very serious problems off of the saakashvili government came to power in two thousand and three but in the book that was when the problems began piling up. interviews were now off limits to our journalists they were all from beeston up and humiliated in public and one of the attempt to protect property puts life in real danger is that we have been deprived of the only

means of earning a living i have gone to their original source all the papers. then legalized the ownership rights on the basis of companies freedom becomes just a stage prop. artie's top stories syria's president also took part in the crimes committed during the ten month uprising against the rule with an amnesty that also extends to army deservers tens of thousands of people have been detained over the past year with serious still long in violence. brutal and have published his plans to find corruption and poverty as well as create a more civil society russia's prime minister is launching his push for a third term as president. and america's mainstream media is accused of hyping up the prospect of war between iran and the west it's

a sensitive time with the military standoff in the persian gulf and mounting sanctions over tehran's nuclear program. up next richard is here with all the latest sports stay with our team. welcome to sports today really good to have you with us we'll stop as always with the headlines. battling through rafael nadal comes the injury oks place in the second round of the australian open. following the first hurdle in the cloud that the bankers are to be able to see opening up losing about five cents to. triple a. practice in parking the new york giants green bay tonight the n.f.c. championship game but also all the houston like her place in the super bowl. will

start with tennis and rafael nadal won his first much of a year as the world number two breezed postie american qualifier alex cannot solve of australian open water ten time grand slam champion was dominant on the spurs for one to drop just six games in the whole match managed. just over an hour and forty five minutes even vote who he was troubled by a knee injury for much of a match or third seed roger federer is also through the beating the russians are example belts of however good news over another russian make alive a dingo world number fifty two looked to be in control of two sets to one up his game fell apart as his opponent flavio stormed back to women five. men while local favor of tom h. is in round two here of a came from one of the darts go in a five set for the nineteen year old coming from true sense down to when he said his mental strength proved to be the key in his victory. everyone thinks it's very

hard in the position me dance is it's the love and having three set points in the second set. you know it was someone else that think you know. in the interview today that the new would have been the new and certainly chances to me. as soon as one of the reasons that made me push through in the lives of the ferguson confidence. martin del potro is also through to the second round the audience line may have dropped off center going to sprint opponent however the former u.s. open champion recovered to record pictures just about three hours sealing it six and. meanwhile there was a successful start for the reigning women's champion kim's christ is the belgian overcoming a portuguese opponent maria call in straight sets of course as didn't find going easy on in the first set but she ventured to get seven five to move in front second it was a different story she swept aside her opponent most of just one game. but

also for the russian hockey has a break sweat in her encounter with a watson from great britain but twenty two year old had far too much power from a baseline for opponents around one hundred five in the wall all very easy for us and go one six one six love and a third seed said the hardest thing was trying to wake up in the morning. didn't get my coffee in the morning. i was really. so there are definitely getting it was so early and i wanted to come play. a little bit longer and center quiet everything was closed in the. car. trying to work with. who lost last year's final melbourne park to clyde's disapproves of a second run as well after sealing a six three six one win up a senior pair of arc. world

number one caroline wozniacki is in action at the last game of the day. with a local favorite and that's the spirit of the honor elsewhere russian qualifier for a shop with nineteen seed flavia pennetta and three cents for the russian. desires after going down in prison. moving to the n.f.l. and bolton will play the new england patriots near c championship game after the ravens beat the houston texans what twenty points to thirteen what is by falling behind an early field goal the ravens were soon in front of flacco for one touchdown pass to chris wilson start seven free front while the baltimore quarterback was soon again in the thick of the action flock of mating with bold into the ravens a sizable seventeen the three advantage at the end of the first quarter but the texans were back in the game five minutes before half time one yard touchdown run

by our in force to trimming the deficit to seventeen to thirteen. over baltimore's defense remain resolute in the smart houston's best efforts but you were unable to force overtime so the ravens are vance to meet tom brady's new england patriots see championship game. in new york giants caused a major upset by it in last season's super bowl champions the green bay packers game looked to be evenly poised going into the half time break of the last play before the intermission you know manning picking on the mix about thirty seven yard pass and york went into the intermission twenty to ten in front of the packers struggled to get it back in the game with guilty giving away far too many turnovers and the giants all but knew they were in the n.f.c. championship game. what about manning for

a four yard touch time. ask him are you manning him to give him a thirty to personally deep into for thirty seven to twenty is how it ended and you all can i praise him cisco for placing a simple. moving to be m.b.a. and utah one of a second time in as many days as barry managed to beat but then the nuggets one hundred sixty one to six will prove to be a tight game from start to finish our follow the team and get some fronts forty eight forty six late in the second wednesday many steal but in the fervor johns remain well in contention in gordon hayward finishing this compromise or watch and steal sixty seven to sixty two however fourth quarter that was all about. one sixteen points in the last twelve minutes of a game to give utah their eighth win in twelve games the season has a new denver in the second place and in more than one quest division. elsewhere the golden state warriors group of first win on the road all seasons they were victorious in detroit and twenty four points from tim duncan san antonio

preserve their unbeaten home record as baby suns by eleven. because of obama and also his hopes of challenging for a champions league spot in the english premier league suffered another blow to spain will be. promoted swansea city and various sharp inserts of robin van persie to open the scoring up to five minutes i'm sorry but was soon level through scott sinclair penalty nathan dyer of the heather lee in the second half there walcott made it to two on sixty minutes of the storms and initially went out the other end and scored the winner danny graham meanwhile leon best scoby only goal is newcastle beat q.p.r. meanwhile the answer manager arsene wenger when the defeat this one on the defensive there is. no performance was not good enough. but why we lost the game where when you came back at two two zero forward we had a good chance to win the game because we looked like. we could be doing to keep

look at them as well after of in the game and. made some great saves and i think it would be me someone blew butcher into his. own to ice hockey my s.s. can moscow be the reigning cage are champions of your life free one on home ice to clinch the third one in a row and claims for a playoff spot in the western conference about onion hospice reports. sysco used to be one of the most degraded sites in soviet hockey but quite a lot has changed over the last twenty years now the club is struggling to return to the summit of the kid shell and facing the league's reigning champion so lucky life was an important test only way and the only man blasted in the two what twenty eleven they won at the old foresight and then on sunday they met again in moscow where the hosts promptly showed their intentions to beat that success and the

condition of moves around the visit there is dual kilmeade with the most recent shots seven minutes in one eye the home side kept of their pressure grading more goal scoring chances and they were soon rewarded the more surreal week finding that from the blue line to extend their men's lead to nil i know ever the second period so solid fired back with one of the league's most skilful players and men never gives up alex under a new of letting the visitors assault however they only managed to break the deadlock after the second intermission i just over a minute into the third to get near enough gives a lot a glimmer of hope to one. or the of get breaking through the amens defense with his individual efforts but it wasn't enough to call ice and once his attempts failed

the hosts scored again surely because the puck sprints of the entire length of the rink and wrapped up the scoring three one two minutes from time game over i mean you can see we didn't think much of my points toward two we try to focus on our game that i'm this approach worked we played groups defensively we managed to switch from the fans too often pretty quick. clearly under fixedly there are very strong teams so we had to do with some tough pressure in this game and i like the way we played tonight we should keep it up we worked as a team we helped each other on the ice and we we try to fight hard in battle hardened front of both nights. we get to get to victory today and they're real satisfied because this guy had the perfect record of two victories out of two games against her and going cup holder is so well suited for a man now looking to get even stronger. righty skill. but

motorsports frenchman stuff on the handsaw has claimed unprecedented tenth dakar rally title after doing enough by crossing the line in tenth place in south america american robby gordon one forty five final stage of world's most famous insurance car race as the competitors arrived in lima the capital of peru but it was the forty six year old but a handful who celebrated his fourth overall title also with six motorcycle crowns in the ninety's russia's leader mean he was fourth overall for the frenchman cereal the place prevailed in the vice category for the fourth time i've lost his when i might call my spain dutchman gerard braud to watch crime in the trucks. i wrote today it's four of us coming up next.

the issue is that so much of it which of course is right on it for you recasting from a global military strategy or just more of the same brugge obama's new vision for the pentagon is a bit saving. president

also targets crimes committed during the ten month op rising against his rule but syria is still in a deadlock of violence. towards and on val's plans to fight corruption and create a more civil society as he begins his push for the presidency also. truly two options bomb iran or let iran get the bomb america's mainstream media stands accused of unbalanced reporting and hyping up global tension all trying to steer public opinion to please their sponsors. and in the business bulletin global.